Fan Experience!

Want a chance to own some of the famous paintings and artifacts from The Longest Ride? Then come to Wake Forest for our annual auction! This year our auction will showcase many different objects from the book The Longest Ride by Nicholas Sparks. Some of the most important objects will be:

Ø  Tickets to a rodeo for a chance to meet a cowboy of your own

Ø  Portrait of Ruth by David McCallum and…

Ø  One of Luke’s favorite Cowboy hats

Don’t forget there could be some secrets behind each item… just like in the book! Each item has their own significance. By coming to this auction you might have the chance to meet the author himself!

                When Marcia, Sophia’s friend, realizes that Sophia has done nothing since her break-up with her boyfriend Brian she decides to take her to a rodeo so they can have fun and let loose.  Once they are there Sophia unexpectedly meets a guy named Luke while outside. Soon enough Sophia finds herself falling head over heels for him. “It had less to do with his appearance… what appealed to her most was the way he made everything appear easy, from the unflappable way he’d handled Brian to their meandering conversation. She never had the sense that he was trying to impress her,” From then on out they spent as much time together as they could. When Sophia and Luke are traveling home they find Ira- a 96 year old man stuck in a car- immediately they call for an ambulance. Once at the hospital with Ira Sophia cannot bring herself to leave, she feels inclined to stay until family arrives. Little does she know… he doesn’t have anyone, his wife has passed and they never had the chance to have kids. A couple weeks later Sophia- A college student majoring in art history- hears about a live auction with hundreds of paintings. A newspaper comes out about the auction. When reading the details, she finds out that all the paintings were Ira’s and his wife’s. Further into the article she finds that he passed away after the car crash Sophia and Luke found him in. This left Sophia and Luke stunned, they didn’t know whether they should go to the auction or not. On the day of, they decided to go because they thought it was the right thing to do. After looking through all the paintings they were both in awe. “”Do you think that the sale prices will approach the estimates?’… ‘A few of those paintings are worth more than twenty of my ranches.’” The first painting was, Portrait of Ruth a painting drawn by a kid (David McCallum).  No one was interested in the painting, except Sophia. She thought it was different and without her saying anything Luke knew that that was the one. He waited until the biding offer went down to $400 and immediately made a bid. But the painting wasn’t the only thing he bought… read the book to find out!

                This auction was thought of with you in mind! We hope that this auction is enjoyable and allows you to feel like you can put yourself into the book and become a character. Hopefully everyone can find an item we are auctioning off to love and cherish. Each item has a different meaning to each person in the book, which can allow you to create meaning towards the items too. You will be able to meet and discuss with other readers and fans about the book while giving your point of view. You never know you might find yourself connecting with someone at the auction and you can have a love story just like Sophia and Luke. If you get really lucky you might even be able to interact with Nicholas Sparks himself, maybe even see what his thoughts are on how his book turned out and what he was thinking of wile writing. But the only way all this can happen is if you come to Wake Forest, North Carolina for a once in a lifetime auction.